GM Akshat Chandra

(17 years old)

Akshat learned chess at the age of 9 ½ when his family relocated to India for a few years. When he returned to the United States he continued playing the game. Despite his late start, as young prodigies typically start playing at around 4 to 5 years old, he was able to gain ground very quickly, and is one of the top youngsters in US Chess today. He has recorded one of the fastest rises in the history of world chess when his chess rating climbed steeply from 1548 to a GM rating of 2500 in about 5 years.

Notable achievements for Akshat include winning the 2015 U.S. Junior Chess Championship, the 2015 National High School Chess Championship as well as the National High School Blitz Championship, and the US National K-9 Championship in 2013, all in his first appearances. Since 2014, at age 14, Akshat has been the #1 ranked Junior Rapid Chess player in the US.

When Akshat started on his quest to become a Chess Grandmaster he began to write about his chess journey on his blog, QuestToGM.com. The blog became a travel log of his various tournaments and lessons he learned. Since becoming a Grandmaster, the blog has been renamed AkshatChandra.com.